Rev. Douglas J. House, M.Div.
“Music is the language of the world” – Anonymous
I heard a young lady playing the piano one day at a social gathering. She was playing a Billy Joel tune to perfection. My guess was that she was in her late teens or early 20’s, and people listening were amazed by her musical talent. I saw someone approach her and ask her if she had visions of being a professional musician in her future. She smiled and said, “Yes, I’m currently in school, studying to be a Music Therapist”. As I overheard the conversation, I remember thinking, “Music Therapist”. It would take a special kind of person to do that, and she certainly had the talent that it must take.
Music has always been an important part of my life. Across the years, I’ve discovered that it speaks a language with which nothing else can compare. It touches us with tones that can calm us, excite us, and at times, even move us to tears. As music can touch the depths of our soul, so it can help us in so many ways. The more I considered it, the concept of a Music Therapist seemed to make a lot of sense. Perhaps those in that profession could reach people in a way that other professionals might not be able to do.
“Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours” – Sir Elton John
I picked up my first guitar when I was twelve. It was a Christmas gift from my parents. At the time, the Beatles were all the rage and as a kid, I was convinced that I was going to become famous like they were. Listening to music and learning how to play chords by ear became a favorite past time. I came to enjoy the music of Peter, Paul, and Mary and I learned to play as many of their songs as I could. With the passing of time, I discovered that music had a way of speaking to me. It could lift my spirits and move me to look at life from a different perspective…a better one.
To this day, I play music on my guitar for at least one hour each day. At times, I get together with others to play music that we enjoy, often changing things, or augmenting the original sounds in order to create something new. I’ve discovered that when things bother me, I can pick up a guitar and lose myself for a few minutes. The words of songs, coupled with the rhythms and the notes create images for me that can move me beyond issues that may have bothered me. Elton John is right, in that music does have the “ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours”. But music can do more than that. Music has the ability to move us through time.
“Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s transporting, for sure.” – Arethea Franklin
I wonder how many of us have ever heard a piece of music on the car radio and been brought back to another time…to an earlier day in our life. Have you ever heard a song and thought to yourself that you remembered exactly where you were and what you were doing the first time you heard it? I believe that has happened many times to all of us. And how many times do those memories make us smile… Perhaps we are carried back to the days of our youth, or to important moments which serve as snapshots of our life. We remember what the popular tunes were when we met the one whom we came to love, or when our first child was born, or when we moved into our first home. So often music holds the keys to our life, defining the milestones of our existence.
So, when I heard that young lady playing Billy Joel material on the piano at that social gathering I mentioned at the beginning, and she indicated that she was heading to become a Music Therapist, she must have had the experience of so many of us where music touches our very souls. She was seeking ways to help others with her gift of music; to help others unlock elements of life that may have entrapped them. Because the truth is that music has a way of cutting through whatever it may be that keeps us from living life to the fullest. It speaks to us in sounds that move our hearts and our lives in so many positive ways. It’s not that music may remove the baggage we carry in life, but just maybe, after listening to something that moves our hearts, we just may find our burdens to be a bit lighter. Afterall, as Aretha Franklin confesses, “Music does a lot of things for people. It’s transporting for sure.” In the course of your life, may you discover the richness and wonders that music can offer.
